'MacGyver' Robot Can Use Found Objects to Solve Problems

Locked out of your car with nothing to break in but a piece of chewing gum and a hair tie? No problem -- there’s a robot for that.

Or there soon will be, as Georgia Institute of Technology researchers are designing a robot that can solve urgent problems using objects it comes across, much like the fictional TV character MacGyver. The robot is called Golem Krang, and is the brainchild of Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Mike Stilman, head of the institute’s Humanoid Robots Lab.

Its ability to MacGyver its way out of problems will come from an algorithm Stilman aims to develop that would help the robot think like a human when faced with an object in its environment that could help accomplish a task.

“We want to understand the basic cognitive processes that allow humans to take advantage of arbitrary objects in their environments as tools,” Stilman said in a press release. Examples of how the robot might do this include using a chair to reach something on a high shelf, or stacking boxes to climb over something, he said.

Need to MacGyver your way out of a tough spot? Golem Krang, a robot designed by researchers at Georgia Tech, may soon be able to help. A Navy grant is funding work by researchers to create an algorithm that would give the robot the ability to use objects in its environment as tools to solve problems, such as the one pictured in a simulated scenario. (Source: Georgia Tech)

The Office of Naval Research has granted Stilman and his team a three-year, $900,000 stipend for the project.

Stilman has likened Golem Krang to the 80s uber-geek action hero (capable of using anything and everything as a tool to get out of a sticky situation), but the robot is more likely to react like any intelligent, quick-thinking human who is trying to solve a sudden and urgent problem. According to Stilman, the key to the algorithm will be providing Golem with basic knowledge of rigid body mechanics and simple machines. With that knowledge, Golem Krang will be able to autonomously determine the amount of force an object has and quickly come up with plans for using that force appropriately.

Geek speak aside, if the code works, the robot will react like any human in a burning building with only a locked window as a means of escape. Golem Krang could quickly assess the potential of using a chair or something heavy to break the window in order to get out alive.

Thinking quickly won’t be the humanoid robot’s only charm. Golem Krang has already been touted for its superior strength, with the ability to lift 100kg -- the combined weight of its two arms. This strength will come in handy when the robot needs to use a pipe as a lever to lift a heavy object that’s pinned someone, one of the simulated scenarios envisioned by Stilman and his team.

Because of the potential to work alongside humans in dangerous situations, it’s not surprising that the Navy is funding the project. Golem would be just the sort of human-helping robot the military has hoped to build via its various robotic endeavors.

In fact, Golem Krang sounds like the perfect candidate for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which is asking teams to compete to create a robot that can perform a number of physical activities that might be required in a disaster. Those activities include skillfully navigating rubble, or using a tool to break through a wall -- actions that would be right up Golem Krang’s alley.

You're finding some old stories of mine, Cabe...I forgot about this one! I haven't seen that film, but it sounds like a good analogy. You've made me think I should do some research and see how far this project has come now.

Good point, William. My colleague Beth pointed out potential drawbacks to this type of robot in a comment below. It definitely remains to be seen how this is executed to determine how successful and, as you pointed out, how creative a robot can be given various scenarios.

The robot may be able to do more and better than the specific task that it's tooling was intended for, which could be very useful in an un-anticipated situation. BUT the creativity of the remote operator is what will be the really vital part. That is similar to the way a good engineer is able to use good engineering tools, but a poor engineer is only able to look at the tools. IT is all about creativity and insight, of course the more adaptive robot will wind up being much more useful.

Unfortunately the Macgyver guy used to routinely violate all kinds of physical realities. CReative? Certainly, but Correct? Very Seldom.

Watson did win against Ken Jenning, and the other champion whose name I can't remember. The game was fairly structured, but still required sifting through a lot of facts very quickly. But Watson was the size of a room, not a mobile robot.

Thanks, Watashi, that's funny. I also think there are some unwarranted, anthropomorphizing assumptions in the comments here about how much independence a machine can actually have. It's one thing to use an algorithm, perhaps as simple as a decision-tree type of analysis, for assessing simple physics (levers, e.g.), amounts of force required, etc. It's quite another to assume, or posit, that a machine can have a separate sense of self and self-awareness.

It was always the cartoonish departures from real physical reality that bothered me. But my wife always watched it because of the guy's looks. Go figure.

Robots won't become an agressive threat until they become self-aware. Likewise, people unable to pay attention long enough to become self-aware are very easy to enslave. That is the reasoning behind the training of the current generation to not be able to focus attention for more than a second or two. They won't be able to discover that they are slaves. Think about that, and become uneasy!

You're right about that, Nadine. The robot is a fascinating step forward, even if it requires mammoth tweaking. The ability of the robot to manipulate tools and the ability of the robot to "think" is quite something.

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